Oak Park Chase Ends Tragically

July 28, 1988|By Andrew Fegelman and Patricia M. Szymczak.

A Cicero couple were killed Wednesday in Oak Park when, according to police, their car was rammed by a pickpocket suspect with an extensive arrest record who ran a red light at high speed while attempting to elude police.

Oak Park police said the suspect`s car reached speeds as high as 90 miles an hour as he attempted to flee police during a mile-long chase down South Boulevard, a street lined on the south mostly by with houses and apartment buildings and the north by CTA rapid-transit tracks.

After running two stop signs and three stoplights, the suspect`s car knocked over a pedestrian at the corner of South and Austin Boulevards before slamming into the side of a station wagon driven by Charles Jerousek, 77, a retired auto mechanic.

Jerousek and his wife, Marie, 74, were killed in the collision.

``It`s a great tragedy,`` said Georgiana Penar, Charles Jerousek`s sister. ``They were in the wrong place at the wrong time.``

Police said the force of the collision was so great that the station wagon was pushed under a City of Chicago garbage truck waiting at the light to turn onto Austin.

``I heard one crash, then another in the time it took me to run down the hall,`` said Holly Saunders, who lives on Austin. ``It looked like the hood of the blue station wagon was totally crushed under the front of the garbage truck.``

The suspect, identified as Andrew Adams, 28, of 1302 S. Lawndale Ave., was listed in serious condition at Loyola University Medical Center, near Maywood. He was being treated for head and abdomen trauma.

The pedestrian, identified as Matilda Ware, 55, was listed in stable condition at West Suburban Hospital Medical Center, Oak Park, with a broken arm.

At the red brick two-flat on Lombard Avenue that was the Jerouseks` home for 20 years, friends and relatives quietly mourned their loss.

Just nine months earlier, violence and tragedy had touched this small family. The couple`s

See Chase, pg. 10

.

Adams was charged with two counts of reckless homicide, said Lisa Howard, a spokeswoman for the Cook County state`s attorney`s office. Oak Park police are guarding him at the hospital, Howard said.

Police Chief William Kohnke said Adams had nine aliases and a record of 15 arrests for offenses ranging from theft to battery to escaping from the Joliet Correctional Center in 1979. He was recaptured.

The chase started about 9:40 a.m. But it resulted from an incident earlier Wednesday morning when police attempted to arrest a suspect who was alleged to have stolen a wallet from an elderly man on the Oak Park Mall. The pickpocket suspect eluded police briefly but was then seen getting into his car near North Boulevard and Oak Park Avenue.

Police said Lt. Paul Briggs ordered the suspect to stop the car, to which he responded ``right here?`` and then fled.

Investigators said Adams ran a red light at a busy intersection at Oak Park Avenue and South Boulevard and drove over a curb before heading eastbound on South Boulevard with Briggs in pursuit.

Kohnke said he didn`t know exactly how fast Briggs was driving, but believed he didn`t reach speeds any faster than 50 miles an hour. The speed limit along South Boulevard ranges between 25 and 30 miles an hour.

In addition to the criminal investigation, Kohnke said the department would undertake what he described as a routine inquiry into the chase.

But, Kohnke said, at the time of the collision, the squad car was about two blocks behind Adams.

``We have no indication that any policy has been violated,`` Kohnke said, adding that the department`s policy regarding police chases dictates that the type of offense committed determines to what extent police will give chase.